1533.—"But in the city there was the Rumi whose foist had been seized by Dimião Bernaldes; being a soldier (lascarym) of the King's, and seeing the present (offered by the Portuguese) he said: My lord, these are crafty robbers; they get into a country with their wares, and pretend to buy and sell, and make friendly gifts, whilst they go spying out the land and the people, and then come with an armed force to seize them, slaying and burning ... till they become masters of the land.... And this Captain-Major is the same that was made prisoner and ill-used by Codavascão in Chatigão, and he is come to take vengeance for the ill that was done him."—Correa, iii. 479.
COFFEE, s. Arab. ḳahwa, a word which appears to have been originally a term for wine.[77] [So in the Arab. Nights, ii. 158, where Burton gives the derivation as akhá, fastidire fecit, causing disinclination for food. In old days the scrupulous called coffee ḳihwah to distinguish it from ḳahwah, wine.] It is probable, therefore, that a somewhat similar word was twisted into this form by the usual propensity to strive after meaning. Indeed, the derivation of the name has been plausibly traced to Kaffa, one of those districts of the S. Abyssinian highlands (Enarea and Kaffa) which appear to have been the original habitat of the Coffee plant (Coffea arabica, L.); and if this is correct, then Coffee is nearer the original than Ḳahwa. On the other hand, Ḳahwa, or some form thereof, is in the earliest mentions appropriated to the drink, whilst some form of the word Bunn is that given to the plant, and Būn is the existing name of the plant in Shoa. This name is also that applied in Yemen to the coffee-berry. There is very fair evidence in Arabic literature that the use of coffee was introduced into Aden by a certain Sheikh Shihābuddīn Dhabḥānī, who had made acquaintance with it on the African coast, and who died in the year H. 875, i.e. A.D. 1470, so that the introduction may be put about the middle of the 15th century, a time consistent with the other negative and positive data.[78] From Yemen it spread to Mecca (where there arose after some years, in 1511, a crusade against its use as unlawful), to Cairo, to Damascus and Aleppo, and to Constantinople, where the first coffee-house was established in 1554. [It is said to have been introduced into S. India some two centuries ago by a Mahommedan pilgrim, named Bābā Būdan, who brought a few seeds with him from Mecca: see Grigg, Nilagiri Man. 483; Rice, Mysore, i. 162.] The first European mention of coffee seems to be by Rauwolff, who knew it in Aleppo in 1573. [See 1 ser. N. & Q. I. 25 seqq.] It is singular that in the Observations of Pierre Belon, who was in Egypt, 1546-49, full of intelligence and curious matter as they are, there is no indication of a knowledge of coffee.
1558.—Extrait du Livre intitulé: "Les Preuves le plus fortes en faveur de la legitimité de l'usage du Café (Kahwa); par le Scheikh Abd-Alkader Ansari Djézéri Hanbali, fils de Mohammed."—In De Sacy, Chrest. Arabe, 2nd ed. i. 412.
1573.—"Among the rest they have a very good Drink, by them called Chaube, that is almost black as Ink, and very good in Illness, chiefly that of the Stomach; of this they drink in the Morning early in open places before everybody, without any fear or regard, out of China cups, as hot as they can; they put it often to their Lips, but drink but little at a Time, and let it go round as they sit. In the same water they take a Fruit called Bunru, which in its Bigness, Shape, and Colour, is almost like unto a Bay-berry, with two thin Shells ... they agree in the Virtue, Figure, Looks, and Name with the Buncho of Avicen,[79] and Bancha of Rasis ad Almans. exactly; therefore I take them to be the same."—Rauwolff, 92.
c. 1580.—"Arborem vidi in viridario Halydei Turcae, cujus tu iconem nunc spectabis, ex qua semina illa ibi vulgatissima, Bon vel Ban appellata, producuntur; ex his tum Aegyptii tum Arabes parant decoctum vulgatissimum, quod vini loco ipsi potant, venditurque in publicis œnopoliis, non secus quod apud nos vinum: illique ipsum vocant Caova.... Avicenna de his seminibus meminit."[79]—Prosper Alpinus, ii. 36.
1598.—In a note on the use of tea in Japan, Dr. Paludanus says: "The Turkes holde almost the same mañer of drinking of their Chaona (read Chaoua), which they make of a certaine fruit, which is like unto the Bakelaer,[80] and by the Egyptians called Bon or Ban; they take of this fruite one pound and a halfe, and roast them a little in the fire, and then sieth them in twentie poundes of water, till the half be consumed away; this drinke they take everie morning fasting in their chambers, out of an earthen pot, being verie hote, as we doe here drinke aqua composita in the morning; and they say that it strengtheneth them and maketh them warm, breaketh wind, and openeth any stopping."—In Linschoten, 46; [Hak. Soc. i. 157].
c. 1610.—"La boisson la plus commune c'est de l'eau, ou bien du vin de Cocos tiré le mesme iour. On en fait de deux autres sortes plus delicates; l'vne est chaude, composée de l'eau et de mièl de Cocos, avec quantité de poivre (dont ils vsent beaucoup en toutes leurs viandes, et ils le nomment Pasme) et d'vne autre graine appellée Cahoa...."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 128; [Hak. Soc. i. 172].
[1611.—"Buy some coho pots and send me."—Danvers, Letters, i. 122; "coffao pots."—Ibid. i. 124.]
1615.—"They have in steed of it (wine) a certaine drinke called Caahiete as black as Inke, which they make with the barke of a tree(!) and drinke as hot as they can endure it."—Monfart, 28.
" "... passano tutto il resto della notte con mille feste e bagordi; e particolarmente in certi luoghi pubblici ... bevendo di quando in quando a sorsi (per chè è calda che cuoce) più d'uno scodellino di certa loro acqua nera, che chiamano cahue; la quale, nelle conversazioni serve a loro, appunto come a noi il giuoco dello sbaraglino" (i.e. backgammon).—P. della Valle (from Constant.), i. 51. See also pp. 74-76.
[ " "Cohu, blake liquor taken as hotte as may be endured."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 32.]
1616.—"Many of the people there (in India), who are strict in their Religion, drink no Wine at all; but they use a Liquor more wholesome than pleasant, they call Coffee; made by a black Seed boyld in water, which turnes it almost into the same colour, but doth very little alter the taste of the water (!): notwithstanding it is very good to help Digestion, to quicken the Spirits, and to cleanse the Blood."—Terry, ed. of 1665, p. 365.
1623.—"Turcae habent etiam in usu herbae genus quam vocant Caphe ... quam dicunt haud parvum praestans illis vigorem, et in animas (sic) et in ingenio; quae tamen largius sumpta mentem movet et turbat...."—F. Bacon, Hist. Vitae et Mortis, 25.
c. 1628.—"They drink (in Persia) ... above all the rest, Coho or Copha: by Turk and Arab called Caphe and Cahua: a drink imitating that in the Stigian lake, black, thick, and bitter: destrain'd from Bunchy, Bunnu, or Bay berries; wholsome they say, if hot, for it expels melancholy ... but not so much regarded for those good properties, as from a Romance that it was invented and brew'd by Gabriel ... to restore the decayed radical Moysture of kind hearted Mahomet...."—Sir T. Herbert, Travels, ed. 1638, p. 241.
[1631.—"Caveah." See quotation under TEA.]
c. 1637.—"There came in my time to the Coll. (Balliol) one Nathaniel Conopios out of Greece, from Cyril the Patriarch of Constantinople.... He was the first I ever saw drink coffee, which custom came not into England till 30 years after."—Evelyn's Diary, [May 10].
1673.—"Every one pays him their congratulations, and after a dish of Coho or Tea, mounting, accompany him to the Palace."—Fryer, 225.
" "Cependant on l'apporta le cavé, le parfum, et le sorbet."—Journal d'Antoine Galland, ii. 124.
[1677.—"Cave." See quotation under TEA.]
1690.—"For Tea and Coffee which are judg'd the privileg'd Liquors of all the Mahometans, as well Turks, as those of Persia, India, and other parts of Arabia, are condemn'd by them (the Arabs of Muscatt) as unlawful Refreshments, and abominated as Bug-bear Liquors, as well as Wine."—Ovington, 427.
1726.—"A certain gentleman, M. Paschius, maintains in his Latin work published at Leipzig in 1700, that the parched corn (1 Sam. xxv. 18) which Abigail presented with other things to David, to appease his wrath, was nought else but Coffi-beans."—Valentijn, v. 192.
COIMBATORE, n.p. Name of a District and town in the Madras Presidency. Koyammutūru; [Kōni, the local goddess so called, muttu, 'pearl,' ūr, 'village'].
COIR, s. The fibre of the coco-nut husk, from which rope is made. But properly the word, which is Tam. kayiru, Malayāl. kāyar, from v. kāyāṛu, 'to be twisted,' means 'cord' itself (see the accurate Al-Birūnī below). The former use among Europeans is very early. And both the fibre and the rope made from it appear to have been exported to Europe in the middle of the 16th century. The word appears in early Arabic writers in the forms ḳānbar and ḳanbār, arising probably from some misreading of the diacritical points (for ḳāiyar, and ḳaiyār). The Portuguese adopted the word in the form cairo. The form coir seems to have been introduced by the English in the 18th century. [The N.E.D. gives coire in 1697; coir in 1779.] It was less likely to be used by the Portuguese because coiro in their language is 'leather.' And Barros (where quoted below) says allusively of the rope: "parece feito de coiro (leather) encolhendo e estendendo a vontade do mar," contracting and stretching with the movement of the sea.
c. 1030.—"The other islands are called Dīva Ḳanbār from the word Ḳanbār signifying the cord plaited from the fibre of the coco-tree with which they stitch their ships together."—Al-Birūnī, in J. As., Ser. iv. tom. viii. 266.
c. 1346.—"They export ... cowries and kanbar; the latter is the name which they give to the fibrous husk of the coco-nut.... They make of it twine to stitch together the planks of their ships, and the cordage is also exported to China, India, and Yemen. This ḳanbar is better than hemp."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 121.
1510.—"The Governor (Alboquerque) ... in Cananor devoted much care to the preparation of cables and rigging for the whole fleet, for what they had was all rotten from the rains in Goa River; ordering that all should be made of coir (cairo), of which there was great abundance in Cananor; because a Moor called Mamalle, a chief trader there, held the whole trade of the Maldive islands by a contract with the kings of the isles ... so that this Moor came to be called the Lord of the Maldives, and that all the coir that was used throughout India had to be bought from the hands of this Moor.... The Governor, learning this, sent for the said Moor, and ordered him to abandon this island trade and to recall his factors.... The Moor, not to lose such a profitable business, ... finally arranged with the Governor that the Isles should not be taken from him, and that he in return would furnish for the king 1000 bahars (barés) of coarse coir, and 1000 more of fine coir, each bahar weighing 4½ quintals; and this every year, and laid down at his own charges in Cananor and Cochym, gratis and free of all charge to the King (not being able to endure that the Portuguese should frequent the Isles at their pleasure)."—Correa, ii. 129-30.
1516.—"These islands make much cordage of palm-trees, which they call cayro."—Barbosa, 164.
c. 1530.—"They made ropes of coir, which is a thread which the people of the country make of the husks which the coco-nuts have outside."—Correa, by Stanley, 133.
1553.—"They make much use of this cairo in place of nails; for as it has this quality of recovering its freshness and swelling in the sea-water, they stitch with it the planking of a ship's sides, and reckon them then very secure."—De Barros, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 7.
1563.—"The first rind is very tough, and from it is made cairo, so called by the Malabars and by us, from which is made the cord for the rigging of all kinds of vessels."—Garcia, f. 67v.
1582.—"The Dwellers therein are Moores; which trade to Sofala in great Ships that have no Decks, nor nailes, but are sowed with Cayro."—Castañeda (by N. L.), f. 14b.
c. 1610.—"This revenue consists in ... Cairo, which is the cord made of the coco-tree."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 172; [Hak. Soc. i. 250].
1673.—"They (the Surat people) have not only the Cair-yarn made of the Cocoe for cordage, but good Flax and Hemp."—Fryer, 121.
c. 1690.—"Externus nucis cortex putamen ambiens, quum exsiccatus, et stupae similis ... dicitur ... Malabarice Cairo, quod nomen ubique usurpatur ubi lingua Portugallica est in usu...."—Rumphius, i. 7.
1727.—"Of the Rind of the Nut they make Cayar, which are the Fibres of the Cask that environs the Nut spun fit to make Cordage and Cables for Shipping."—A. Hamilton, i. 296; [ed. 1744, i. 298].
[1773.—"... these they call Kiar Yarns."—Ives, 457.]
COJA, s. P. khojah for khwājah, a respectful title applied to various classes: as in India especially to eunuchs; in Persia to wealthy merchants; in Turkistan to persons of sacred families.
c. 1343.—"The chief mosque (at Kaulam) is admirable; it was built by the merchant Khojah Muhaddhab."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 100.
[1590.—"Hoggia." See quotation under TALISMAN.
[1615.—"The Governor of Suratt is displaced, and Hoyja Hassan in his room."—Foster, Letters, iv. 16.
[1708.—"This grave is made for Hodges Shaughsware, the chiefest servant to the King of Persia for twenty years...."—Inscription on the tomb of "Coya Shawsware, a Persin in St. Botolph's Churchyard, Bishopsgate," New View of London, p. 169.]
1786.—"I also beg to acquaint you I sent for Retafit Ali Khân, the Cojah who has the charge of (the women of Oudh Zenanah) who informs me it is well grounded that they have sold everything they had, even the clothes from their backs, and now have no means to subsist."—Capt. Jaques in Articles of Charge, &c., Burke, vii. 27.
1838.—"About a century back Khan Khojah, a Mohamedan ruler of Kashghar and Yarkand, eminent for his sanctity, having been driven from his dominions by the Chinese, took shelter in Badakhshan."—Wood's Oxus, ed. 1872, p. 161.
COLAO, s. Chin. koh-lao, 'Council Chamber Elders' (Bp. Moule). A title for a Chinese Minister of State, which frequently occurs in the Jesuit writers of the 17th century.
COLEROON, n.p. The chief mouth, or delta-branch, of the Kāveri River (see CAUVERY). It is a Portuguese corruption of the proper name Kŏḷḷiḍam, vulg. Kollaḍam. This name, from Tam. kŏl, 'to receive,' and 'iḍam,' 'place,' perhaps answers to the fact of this channel having been originally an escape formed at the construction of the great Tanjore irrigation works in the 11th century. In full flood the Coleroon is now, in places, nearly a mile wide, whilst the original stream of the Kāveri disappears before reaching the sea. Besides the etymology and the tradition, the absence of notice of the Coleroon in Ptolemy's Tables is (quantum valeat) an indication of its modern origin. As the sudden rise of floods in the rivers of the Coromandel coast often causes fatal accidents, there seems a curious popular tendency to connect the names of the rivers with this fact. Thus Kŏlliḍam, with the meaning that has been explained, has been commonly made into Kolliḍam, 'Killing-place.' [So the Madras Gloss. which connects the name with a tradition of the drowning of workmen when the Srirangam temple was built, but elsewhere (ii. 213) it is derived from Tam. koḷḷāyī, 'a breach in a bank.'] Thus also the two rivers Peṇṇar are popularly connected with piṇam, 'corpse.' Fra Paolino gives the name as properly Colárru, and as meaning 'the River of Wild Boars.' But his etymologies are often wild as the supposed Boars.
1553.—De Barros writes Coloran, and speaks of it as a place (lugar) on the coast, not as a river.—Dec. I. liv. ix. cap. 1.
1672.—"From Trangebar one passes by Trinilivaas to Colderon; here a Sandbank stretches into the sea which is very dangerous."—Baldaeus, 150. (He does not speak of it as a River either.)
c. 1713.—"Les deux Princes ... se liguèrent contre l'ennemi commun, à fin de le contraindre par la force des armes à rompre une digue si préjudiciable à leurs Etats. Ils faisoient déjà de grands préparatifs, lorsque le fleuve Coloran vengea par lui-même (comme on s'exprimoit ici) l'affront que le Roi faisoit a ses eaux en les retenant captives."—Lettres Edifiantes, ed. 1781, xi. 180.
1753.—"... en doublant le Cap Callamedu, jusqu'à la branche du fleuve Caveri qui porte le nom de Colh-ram, et dont l'embouchure est la plus septentrionale de celles du Caveri."—D'Anville, 115.
c. 1760.—"... the same river being written Collarum by M. la Croze, and Collodham by Mr. Ziegenbalg."—Grose, i. 281.
1761.—"Clive dislodged a strong body of the Nabob's troops, who had taken post at Sameavarem, a fort and temple situated on the river Kalderon."—Complete H. of the War in India, from 1749 to 1761 (Tract), p. 12.
1780.—"About 3 leagues north from the river Triminious [? Tirumullavāsel], is that of Coloran. Mr. Michelson calls this river Danecotta."—Dunn, N. Directory, 138.
The same book has "Coloran or Colderoon."
1785.—"Sundah Saheb having thrown some of his wretched infantry into a temple, fortified according to the Indian method, upon the river Kaldaron, Mr. Clive knew there was no danger in investing it."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, i. 20.
COLLECTOR, s. The chief administrative official of an Indian Zillah or District. The special duty of the office is, as the name intimates, the Collection of Revenue; but in India generally, with the exception of Bengal Proper, the Collector, also holding controlling magisterial powers, has been a small pro-consul, or kind of préfet. This is, however, much modified of late years by the greater definition of powers, and subdivision of duties everywhere. The title was originally no doubt a translation of taḥṣīldār. It was introduced, with the office, under Warren Hastings, but the Collector's duties were not formally settled till 1793, when these appointments were reserved to members of the covenanted Civil Service.
1772.—"The Company having determined to stand forth as dewan, the Supervisors should now be designated Collectors."—Reg. of 14th May, 1772.
1773.—"Do not laugh at the formality with which we have made a law to change their name from supervisors to collectors. You know full well how much the world's opinion is governed by names."—W. Hastings to Josias Dupre, in Gleig, i. 267.
1785.—"The numerous Collectors with their assistants had hitherto enjoyed very moderate allowances from their employers."—Letter in Colebrooke's Life, p. 16.
1838.—"As soon as three or four of them get together they speak about nothing but 'employment' and 'promotion' ... and if left to themselves, they sit and conjugate the verb 'to collect': 'I am a Collector—He was a Collector—We shall be Collectors—You ought to be a Collector—They would have been Collectors.'"—Letters from Madras, 146.
1848.—"Yet she could not bring herself to suppose that the little grateful gentle governess would dare to look up to such a magnificent personage as the Collector of Boggleywallah."—Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. iv.
1871.—"There is no doubt a decay of discretionary administration throughout India ... it may be taken for granted that in earlier days Collectors and Commissioners changed their rules far oftener than does the Legislature at present."—Maine, Village Communities, 214.
1876.—"These 'distinguished visitors' are becoming a frightful nuisance; they think that Collectors and Judges have nothing to do but to act as their guides, and that Indian officials have so little work, and suffer so much from ennui, that even ordinary thanks for hospitality are unnecessary; they take it all as their right."—Ext. of a Letter from India.
COLLEGE-PHEASANT, s. An absurd enough corruption of kālij; the name in the Himālaya about Simla and Mussooree for the birds of the genus Gallophasis of Hodgson, intermediate between the pheasants and the Jungle-fowls. "The group is composed of at least three species, two being found in the Himalayas, and one in Assam, Chittagong and Arakan." (Jerdon).
[1880.—"These, with kalege pheasants, afforded me some very fair sport."—Ball, Jungle Life, 538.
[1882.—"Jungle-fowl were plentiful, as well as the black khalege pheasant."—Sanderson, Thirteen Years among Wild Beasts, 147.]
COLLERY, CALLERY, &c. s. Properly Bengali khālāṛī, 'a salt-pan, or place for making salt.'
[1767.—"... rents of the Collaries, the fifteen Dees, and of Calcutta town, are none of them included in the estimation I have laid before you."—Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 223.]
1768.—"... the Collector-general be desired to obtain as exact an account as he possibly can, of the number of colleries in the Calcutta purgunnehs."—In Carraccioli's L. of Clive, iv. 112.
COLLERY, n.p. The name given to a non-Aryan race inhabiting part of the country east of Madura. Tam. kallaṛ, 'thieves.' They are called in Nelson's Madura, [Pt. ii. 44 seqq.] Kallans; Kallan being the singular, Kallar plural.
1763.—"The Polygar Tondiman ... likewise sent 3000 Colleries; these are a people who, under several petty chiefs, inhabit the woods between Trichinopoly and Cape Comorin; their name in their own language signifies Thieves, and justly describes their general character."—Orme, i. 208.
c. 1785.—"Colleries, inhabitants of the woods under the Government of the Tondiman."—Carraccioli, Life of Clive, iv. 561.
1790.—"The country of the Colleries ... extends from the sea coast to the confines of Madura, in a range of sixty miles by fifty-five."—Cal. Monthly Register or India Repository, i. 7.
COLLERY-HORN, s. This is a long brass horn of hideous sound, which is often used at native funerals in the Peninsula, and has come to be called, absurdly enough, Cholera-horn!
[1832.—"Toorree or Toorrtooree, commonly designated by Europeans collery horn, consists of three pieces fixed into one another, of a semi-circular shape."—Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, ed. 1863, p. liv. App.]
1879.—"... an early start being necessary, a happy thought struck the Chief Commissioner, to have the Amildar's Cholera-horn men out at that hour to sound the reveillé, making the round of the camp."—Madras Mail, Oct. 7.
COLLERY-STICK, s. This is a kind of throwing-stick or boomerang used by the Colleries.
1801.—"It was he first taught me to throw the spear, and hurl the Collery-stick, a weapon scarcely known elsewhere, but in a skilful hand capable of being thrown to a certainty to any distance within 100 yards."—Welsh's Reminiscences, i. 130.
Nelson calls these weapons "Vallari Thadis or boomerangs."—Madura, Pt. ii. 44. [The proper form seems to be Tam. valai tādi, 'curved stick'; more usually Tam. kallardādi, tādi, 'stick.'] See also Sir Walter Elliot in J. Ethnol. Soc., N. S., i. 112, seq.
COLOMBO, n.p. Properly Kol̤umbu, the modern capital of Ceylon, but a place of considerable antiquity. The derivation is very uncertain; some suppose it to be connected with the adjoining river Kalani-gangi. The name Columbum, used in several medieval narratives, belongs not to this place but to Kaulam (see QUILON).
c. 1346.—"We started for the city of Kalanbū, one of the finest and largest cities of the island of Serendīb. It is the residence of the Wazīr Lord of the Sea (Ḥākim-al-Bahr), Jālastī, who has with him about 500 Habshis."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 185.
1517.—"The next day was Thursday in Passion Week; and they, well remembering this, and inspired with valour, said to the King that in fighting the Moors they would be insensible to death, which they greatly desired rather than be slaves to the Moors.... There were not 40 men in all, whole and sound for battle. And one brave man made a cross on the tip of a cane, which he set in front for standard, saying that God was his Captain, and that was his Flag, under which they should march deliberately against Columbo, where the Moor was with his forces."—Correa, ii. 521.
1553.—"The King, Don Manuel, because ... he knew ... that the King of Columbo, who was the true Lord of the Cinnamon, desired to possess our peace and friendship, wrote to the said Affonso d'Alboquerque, who was in the island in person, that if he deemed it well, he should establish a fortress in the harbour of Columbo, so as to make sure the offers of the King."—Barros, Dec. III. liv. ii. cap. 2.
COLUMBO ROOT, CALUMBA ROOT, is stated by Milburn (1813) to be a staple export from Mozambique, being in great esteem as a remedy for dysentery, &c. It is Jateorhiza palmata, Miers; and the name Kalumb is of E. African origin (Hanbury and Flückiger, 23). [The N.E.D. takes it from Colombo, 'under a false impression that it was supplied from thence.'] The following quotation is in error as to the name:
c. 1779.—"Radix Colombo ... derives its name from the town of Columbo, from whence it is sent with the ships to Europe (?); but it is well known that this root is neither found near Columba, nor upon the whole island of Ceylon...."—Thunberg, Travels, iv. 185.
1782.—"Any person having a quantity of fresh sound Columbia Root to dispose of, will please direct a line...."—India Gazette, Aug. 24.
[1809.—"An Account of the Male Plant, which furnishes the Medicine generally called Columbo or Colomba Root."—Asiat. Res. x. 385 seqq.]
1850.—"Caoutchouc, or India-rubber, is found in abundance ... (near Tette) ... and calumba-root is plentiful.... The India-rubber is made into balls for a game resembling 'fives,' and calumba-root is said to be used as a mordant for certain colours, but not as a dye itself."—Livingstone, Expedition to the Zambezi, &c., p. 32.
COMAR, n.p. This name (Ar. al-Ḳumār), which appears often in the old Arab geographers, has been the subject of much confusion among modern commentators, and probably also among the Arabs themselves; some of the former (e.g. the late M. Reinaud) confounding it with C. Comorin, others with Kāmrūp (or Assam). The various indications, e.g. that it was on the continent, and facing the direction of Arabia, i.e. the west; that it produced most valuable aloes-wood; that it lay a day's voyage, or three days' voyage, west of Ṣanf or Champa (q.v.), and from ten to twenty days' sail from Zābaj (or Java), together with the name, identify it with Camboja, or Khmer, as the native name is (see Reinaud, Rel. des Arabes, i. 97, ii. 48, 49; Gildemeister, 156 seqq.; Ibn Batuta, iv. 240; Abulfeda, Cathay and the Way Thither, 519, 569). Even the sagacious De Orta is misled by the Arabs, and confounds alcomari with a product of Cape Comorin (see Colloquios, f. 120v.).
CÓMATY, s. Telug. and Canar. kōmati, 'a trader,' [said to be derived from Skt. go, 'eye,' mushṭi, 'fist,' from their vigilant habits]. This is a term used chiefly in the north of the Madras Presidency, and corresponding to Chetty, [which the males assume as an affix].
1627.—"The next Tribe is there termed Committy, and these are generally the Merchants of the Place who by themselves or their servants, travell into the Countrey, gathering up Callicoes from the weavers, and other commodities, which they sell againe in greater parcels."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 997.
[1679.—"There came to us the Factory this day a Dworfe an Indian of the Comitte Cast, he was he said 30 years old ... we measured him by the rule 46 inches high, all his limbs and his body streight and equall proportioned, of comely face, his speech small equalling his stature...."—Streynsham Master, in Kistna Man. 142.
[1869.—"Komatis." See quotation under CHUCKLER.]
COMBACONUM, n.p., written Kumbakoṇam. Formerly the seat of the Chola dynasty. Col. Branfill gives, as the usual derivation, Skt. Kumbhakoṇa, 'brim of a water-pot'; [the Madras Gloss. Skt. kumbha, kona, 'lane'] and this form is given in Williams's Skt. Dict. as 'name of a town.' The fact that an idol in the Saiva temple at Combaconam is called Kumbheśvaram ('Lord of the water-pot') may possibly be a justification of this etymology. But see general remarks on S. Indian names in the Introduction.
COMBOY. A sort of skirt or kilt of white calico, worn by Singhalese of both sexes, much in the same way as the Malay Sarong. The derivation which Sir E. Tennent (Ceylon, i. 612, ii. 107) gives of the word is quite inadmissible. He finds that a Chinese author describes the people of Ceylon as wearing a cloth made of koo-pei, i.e. of cotton; and he assumes therefore that those people call their own dress by a Chinese name for cotton! The word, however, is not real Singhalese; and we can have no doubt that it is the proper name Cambay. Paños de Cãbaya are mentioned early as used in Ceylon (Castanheda, ii. 78), and Cambays by Forrest (Voyage to Mergui, 79). In the Government List of Native Words (Ceylon, 1869) the form used in the Island is actually Kambāya. A picture of the dress is given by Tennent (Ceylon, i. 612). It is now usually of white, but in mourning black is used.
1615.—"Tansho Samme, the Kinges kinsman, brought two pec. Cambaia cloth."—Cocks's Diary, i. 15.
[1674-5.—"Cambaja Brawles."—Invoice in Birdwood, Report on Old Recs., p. 42.]
1726.—In list of cloths purchased at Porto Novo are "Cambayen."—Valentijn, Chorom. 10.
[1727.—"Cambaya Lungies." See quotation under LOONGHEE.]
COMMERCOLLY, n.p. A small but well-known town of Lower Bengal in the Nadiya District; properly Kumār-khālī ['Prince's Creek']. The name is familiar in connection with the feather trade (see ADJUTANT).
COMMISSIONER, s. In the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies this is a grade in the ordinary administrative hierarchy; it does not exist in Madras, but is found in the Punjab, Central Provinces, &c. The Commissioner is over a Division embracing several Districts or Zillahs, and stands between the Collectors and Magistrates of these Districts on the one side, and the Revenue Board (if there is one) and the Local Government on the other. In the Regulation Provinces he is always a member of the Covenanted Civil Service; in Non-Regulation Provinces he may be a military officer; and in these the District officers immediately under him are termed 'Deputy Commissioners.'
COMMISSIONER, CHIEF. A high official, governing a Province inferior to a Lieutenant-Governorship, in direct subordination to the Governor-General in Council. Thus the Punjab till 1859 was under a Chief Commissioner, as was Oudh till 1877 (and indeed, though the offices are united, the Lieut.-Governor of the N.W. Provinces holds also the title of Chief Commissioner of Oudh). The Central Provinces, Assam, and Burma are other examples of Provinces under Chief Commissioners.
COMORIN, CAPE, n.p. The extreme southern point of the Peninsula of India; a name of great antiquity. No doubt Wilson's explanation is perfectly correct; and the quotation from the Periplus corroborates it. He says: "Kumārī, ... a young girl, a princess; a name of the goddess Durgā, to whom a temple dedicated at the extremity of the Peninsula has long given to the adjacent cape and coast the name of Kumārī, corrupted to Comorin...." The Tamil pronunciation is Kumări.
c. 80-90.—"Another place follows called Κομὰρ, at which place is (* * *) and a port;[81] and here those who wish to consecrate the remainder of their life come and bathe, and there remain in celibacy. The same do women likewise. For it is related that the goddess there tarried a while and bathed."—Periplus, in Müller's Geog. Gr. Min. i. 300.
c. 150.—"Κομαρία ἄκρον καὶ πόλις."—Ptol. [viii. 1 § 9].
1298.—"Comari is a country belonging to India, and there you may see something of the North Star, which we had not been able to see from the Lesser Java thus far."—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. 23.
c. 1330.—"The country called Ma'bar is said to commence at the Cape Kumhari, a name applied both to a town and a mountain."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 185.
[1514.—"Comedis." See quotation under MALABAR.]
1572.—
"Ves corre a costa celebre Indiana
Para o Sul até o cabo Comori
Ja chamado Cori, que Taprobana
(Que ora he Ceilão) de fronte tem de si."
Camões, v. 107.
Here Camões identifies the ancient Κῶρυ or Κῶλις with Comorin. These are in Ptolemy distinct, and his Kory appears to be the point of the Island of Rāmeśvaram from which the passage to Ceylon was shortest. This, as Kōlis, appears in various forms in other geographers as the extreme seaward point of India, and in the geographical poem of Dionysius it is described as towering to a stupendous height above the waves. Mela regards Colis as the turning point of the Indian coast, and even in Ptolemy's Tables his Kōry is further south than Komaria, and is the point of departure from which he discusses distances to the further East (see Ptolemy, Bk. I. capp. 13, 14; also see Bishop Caldwell's Comp. Grammar, Introd., p. 103). It is thus intelligible how comparative geographers of the 16th century identified Kōry with C. Comorin.
In 1864 the late venerated Bishop Cotton visited C. Comorin in company with two of his clergy (both now missionary bishops). He said that having bathed at Hardwār, one of the most northerly of Hindu sacred places, he should like to bathe at this, the most southerly. Each of the chaplains took one of the bishop's hands as they entered the surf, which was heavy; so heavy that his right-hand aid was torn from him, and had not the other been able to hold fast, Bishop Cotton could hardly have escaped.[82]
[1609.—"... very strong cloth and is called Cacha de Comoree."—Danvers, Letters, i. 29.
[1767.—"The pagoda of the Cunnacomary belonging to Tinnevelly."—Treaty, in Logan, Malabar, iii. 117.]
1817.—
"... Lightly latticed in
With odoriferous woods of Comorin."
Lalla Rookh, Mokanna.
This probably is derived from D'Herbelot, and involves a confusion often made between Comorin and Comar—the land of aloes-wood.
COMOTAY, COMATY, n.p. This name appears prominently in some of the old maps of Bengal, e.g. that embraced in the Magni Mogolis Imperium of Blaeu's great Atlas (1645-50). It represents Kāmata, a State, and Kāmatapur, a city, of which most extensive remains exist in the territory of Koch Bihār in Eastern Bengal (see COOCH BEHAR). These are described by Dr. Francis Buchanan, in the book published by Montgomery Martin under the name of Eastern India (vol. iii. 426 seqq.). The city stood on the west bank of the River Darlā, which formed the defence on the east side, about 5 miles in extent. The whole circumference of the enclosure is estimated by Buchanan at 19 miles, the remainder being formed by a rampart which was (c. 1809) "in general about 130 feet in width at the base, and from 20 to 30 feet in perpendicular height."
1553.—"Within the limits in which we comprehend the kingdom of Bengala are those kingdoms subject to it ... lower down towards the sea the kingdom of Comotaij."—Barros, IV. ix. 1.
[c. 1596.—"Kamtah." See quotation under COOCH BEHAR.]
1873.—"During the 15th century, the tract north of Rangpúr was in the hands of the Rájahs of Kámata.... Kámata was invaded, about 1498 A.D., by Husain Sháh."—Blochmann, in J. As. Soc. Bengal, xiii. pt. i. 240.
COMPETITION-WALLAH, s. A hybrid of English and Hindustani, applied in modern Anglo-Indian colloquial to members of the Civil Service who have entered it by the competitive system first introduced in 1856. The phrase was probably the invention of one of the older or Haileybury members of the same service. These latter, whose nominations were due to interest, and who were bound together by the intimacies and esprit de corps of a common college, looked with some disfavour upon the children of Innovation. The name was readily taken up in India, but its familiarity in England is probably due in great part to the "Letters of a Competition-wala," written by one who had no real claim to the title, Sir G. O. Trevelyan, who was later on member for Hawick Burghs, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and author of the excellent Life of his uncle, Lord Macaulay.
The second portion of the word, wālā, is properly a Hindi adjectival affix, corresponding in a general way to the Latin -arius. Its usual employment as affix to a substantive makes it frequently denote "agent, doer, keeper, man, inhabitant, master, lord, possessor, owner," as Shakespear vainly tries to define it, and as in Anglo-Indian usage is popularly assumed to be its meaning. But this kind of denotation is incidental; there is no real limitation to such meaning. This is demonstrable from such phrases as Kābul-wālā ghoṛā, 'the Kabulian horse,' and from the common form of village nomenclature in the Panjāb, e.g. Mīr-Khān-wālā, Ganda-Singh-wālā, and so forth, implying the village established by Mir-Khan or Ganda-Singh. In the three immediately following quotations, the second and third exhibit a strictly idiomatic use of wālā, the first an incorrect English use of it.
1785.—
"Tho' then the Bostonians made such a fuss,
Their example ought not to be followed by us,
But I wish that a band of good Patriot-wallahs ..."—In Seton-Karr, i. 93.
" In this year Tippoo Sahib addresses a rude letter to the Nawāb of Shānūr (or Savanūr) as "The Shahnoorwâlah."—Select Letters of Tippoo, 184.
1814.—"Gungadhur Shastree is a person of great shrewdness and talent.... Though a very learned shastree, he affects to be quite an Englishman, walks fast, talks fast, interrupts and contradicts, and calls the Peshwa and his ministers 'old fools' and ... 'dam rascals.' He mixes English words with everything he says, and will say of some one (Holkar for instance): Bhot trickswalla tha, laiken barra akulkund, Kukhye tha, ('He was very tricky, but very sagacious; he was cock-eyed')."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 276.
1853.—"'No, I'm a Suffolk-walla.'"—Oakfield, i. 66.
1864.—"The stories against the Competition-wallahs, which are told and fondly believed by the Haileybury men, are all founded more or less on the want of savoir faire. A collection of these stories would be a curious proof of the credulity of the human mind on a question of class against class."—Trevelyan, p. 9.
1867.—"From a deficiency of civil servants ... it became necessary to seek reinforcements, not alone from Haileybury, ... but from new recruiting fields whence volunteers might be obtained ... under the pressure of necessity, such an exceptional measure was sanctioned by Parliament. Mr. Elliot, having been nominated as a candidate by Campbell Marjoribanks, was the first of the since celebrated list of the Competition-wallahs."—Biog. Notice prefixed to vol. i. of Dowson's Ed. of Elliot's Historians of India, p. xxviii.
The exceptional arrangement alluded to in the preceding quotation was authorised by 7 Geo. IV. cap. 56. But it did not involve competition; it only authorised a system by which writerships could be given to young men who had not been at Haileybury College, on their passing certain test examinations, and they were ranked according to their merit in passing such examinations, but below the writers who had left Haileybury at the preceding half-yearly examination. The first examination under this system was held 29th March, 1827, and Sir H. M. Elliot headed the list. The system continued in force for five years, the last examination being held in April, 1832. In all 83 civilians were nominated in this way, and, among other well-known names, the list included H. Torrens, Sir H. B. Harington, Sir R. Montgomery, Sir J. Cracroft Wilson, Sir T. Pycroft, W. Tayler, the Hon. E. Drummond.
1878.—"The Competition-Wallah, at home on leave or retirement, dins perpetually into our ears the greatness of India.... We are asked to feel awestruck and humbled at the fact that Bengal alone has 66 millions of inhabitants. We are invited to experience an awful thrill of sublimity when we learn that the area of Madras far exceeds that of the United Kingdom."—Sat. Rev., June 15, p. 750.
COMPOUND, s. The enclosed ground, whether garden or waste, which surrounds an Anglo-Indian house. Various derivations have been suggested for this word, but its history is very obscure. The following are the principal suggestions that have been made:—[83]